Big news week here! In deference to the federal government’s recent shut-down, Chappy has also suspended all government activities. All employees have been furloughed until further notice. This will hit the seagulls particularly hard as they depend on their weekly paycheck for dropping mollusks on the hoods of Mercedes.

As I joined the line waiting to enter the meeting room, I greeted and joked with some of the oyster growers in a manner customary among close friends. Like old friends coming together at a funeral, our jolly small talk denied the seriousness of the occasion.

In the days and weeks following the president’s assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy received more than 800,000 condolence letters from all over the world. On Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 7:30 p.m. the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center in Vineyard Haven will screen a documentary that includes actors reading 20 of these letters accompanied by archival footage and Kennedy home movies recently made available. The event and documentary commemorates the 50th anniversary of the assassination, which took place on Nov. 22, 1963.

A Pennsylvania man charged with stealing more than $85,000 worth of jewelry and other items during a series of August home break-ins was sentenced last week to serve 18 months in a house of correction.

Damien N. Derose, 28, of Doylestown, Pa., pleaded guilty Sept. 27 in Edgartown district court to eight counts of breaking and entering a building in the daytime for a felony, six counts of larceny from a building, one count of attempt to commit a crime, one count of larceny more than $250 and one count of malicious destruction of property more than $250.

You have another shot at dancing the night away at the one and only family disco party — the Family Dance-O-Rama. The dance party is on Sunday, Oct. 6 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Flatbread in Edgartown. Pair your pepperoni pizza with a little hustle and join DJ Shizz for some family fun. Admission is free. Call 508-693-1137 for more information.

Better warm up those vocal chords because an Island tradition is on its way. The All Island Choral Festival is at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17, at the Performing Arts Center next to the regional high school. Roberta Kirn will be working with student musicians preparing them for the event.

Whatever your favorite — milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate or semi-sweet — the Art of Chocolate Festival will have a treat for you. The 10th annual Art of Chocolate Festival kicks off with a preview party outside under the tent at Featherstone on Friday evening, Oct. 11, from 6 to 8 p.m.

An autumn yoga retreat sounds like just the thing to help prepare for the changing seasons. Amanda Cohen offers a yoga retreat at the Chappaquiddick Community Center on Oct. 12 and 13 from 9 to 11 a.m. on both days. She will move the two groups through breathing techniques and postures to help usher in the quiet season.

Join the land bank staff and take a guided walk of Three Ponds Reservation on Chappaquiddick on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 1 p.m. Meet at the Brine’s Pond trailhead at the Chappquiddick Community Center off Chappaquiddick Road and don’t forget your boots.

Island mom Sarah Waldman is organizing a screening of the award-winning film Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives on Thursday, Oct. 17 at Edgartown Cinemas. The film captures a spirited group of women who teach themselves how to deliver babies in a 1970s commune.